diff --git a/Lib/test/test_sys.py b/Lib/test/test_sys.py
index a4554a6..afeaf25 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_sys.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_sys.py
@@ -221,6 +221,11 @@
             sys.setdlopenflags(oldflags)
 
     def test_refcount(self):
+        # n here must be a global in order for this test to pass while
+        # tracing with a python function.  Tracing calls PyFrame_FastToLocals
+        # which will add a copy of any locals to the frame object, causing
+        # the reference count to increase by 2 instead of 1.
+        global n
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, sys.getrefcount)
         c = sys.getrefcount(None)
         n = None
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 62b37f2..6907c97 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-+++++++++++ Python News
++++++++++++
+Python News
 +++++++++++
 
 (editors: check NEWS.help for information about editing NEWS using ReST.)
@@ -715,6 +716,8 @@
 Tests
 -----
 
+- Issue #5635: Fix running test_sys with tracing enabled.
+
 - regrtest no longer treats ImportError as equivalent to SkipTest.  Imports
   that should cause a test to be skipped are now done using import_module 
   from test support, which does the conversion.